The current work environment is becoming centrally important in recruitment, retention and motivation of the best people. Most managers will agree that a better work environment will reduce stress, improve morale and motivate employees to perform at their best, yet they do not fully understand the extent to which their employees feel motivated to work. The aim of this study was to understand the motivational levels of the employees at The Cold Chain/MERCOR Solutions in relation to their work environment. Although numerous factors affecting motivational levels of employees impacted on employee productivity and performance, this study focused on those factors that emanated out of the work environment. An empirical study using quantitative data collection approach was conducted. A sample of 139 staff members based at the two distribution centres participated in the study out of a population size of 320 employees. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that was handed out to employees. Data was analysed, interpreted and presented with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results showed that the employees at the two distribution centres are motivated and enjoy going to work, however employees felt that the work environment was challenging and more than half of the employees were not satisfied with the current work environment. It was evident that employees were not happy with remuneration that they received; felt that the company did not promote a healthy work-life balance and that training although forthcoming from their managers and supervisors, was not championed enough by the organization. It was recommended that the organization give consideration to the work environment in which the employee operates in; formalize training; look at motivational approaches to job design and set and review goals with employees periodically. Although this study focused on the two distribution centres based in KwaZulu-Natal, recommendations can be used and implemented throughout all of the other distribution centres nationally that fall under The Cold Chain / MERCOR Solutions umbrella. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The relationship between the organisation and its members is governed by what motivates them to work and the fulfilment they derive from it. The manager needs to know how best to elicit the co-operation of staff and direct their performance towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation. Managers need to understand the nature of human behaviour and how best to motivate staff so that they can work willingly and effectively. This study was conducted at the KwaZulu-Natal Police Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL-KZN). The aim of the study was to evaluate and investigate the status of employee motivation within this environment. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect and influence of employee recognition, communication processes and social interaction on employee motivation. The relationship between the organisational reward systems and employee motivation was also investigated as well as identifying current motivating and de-motivating factors. The quantitative method was used for this study. Information was gathered from the sample which comprised of employees from all levels of the KwaZulu-Natal Police Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL-KZN). The population for this study was 163 FSL-KZN employees, of which 79 actually completed and returned the questionnaires (n=79). The research instrument (questionnaire) comprised 3 demographic questions, 22 closed ended likert scale type questions and 3 open ended questions. The simple random sampling technique was employed in this study which was then statistically analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) programme. The key statistical findings of the study were the organisation needs to urgently improve its career ‘pathing’ strategy and a significant percentage cited an improvement was urgently needed in terms of communication and social aspects within the organisation. A fair percentage also recommended improved financial rewards and incentive programmes as the general consensus was that management fails to effectively recognise employee contribution and input to the organisation and most employees are of the view that they are not suitably rewarded for their efforts. Though the study was too small for the results to be generalized to other forensic science laboratories, the recommendations made will certainly address current and pertinent issues at the KwaZulu-Natal Police Forensic Science Laboratory. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Attitudes are commonly investigated in management research as they have predictive value to achievement and a positive attitude helps to produce desirable outcome. This thesis explores organisational commitment among academic staff in a Malaysian institution of higher learning. A thorough review of the literature revealed that there have been a number or previous studies of organisational commitment but none within this context. As the term organisational commitment is abstract it is operationally defined by simplifying it into observable characteristics. Organisational commitment is manifested in a) a strong belief in and acceptance of organisational goals and values; b) a willingness to exert considerable energy on behalf of the organisation; and c) a strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation. These elements can be measured using a questionnaire developed by Porter and Smith (1970). Factor Analysis is used to group responses into categories as dependent variables. Multiple Regression Analysis is then used to explore statistical relationships between organisational commitment factors derived from Factor Analysis and attitudes towards pay and promotion and to socio-demographic characteristics. The sample size of 818 respondents was derived from 2000 accessible academics from all schools and branches (except Sarawak) of the MARA Institute of Technology (ITM). A self administered questionnaire was selected as the mode of data collection. Overall organisational commitment among the academics towards their Institution was found to be high. Differences in levels of individuals' measured indicated organisational commitment could be statistically determined by demographic factors. However attitudes towards pay and promotion were found to be much more important as determinants of organisational commitment when they were included in the analysis and relationships tested with the use of Multiple Regression Analysis.

This thesis investigates the effect of profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes on employee job attitudes and behaviours by taking into account the critical role of participation in decision making. The data were obtained from a large British retail organization operating profit sharing (PS) and save-as-you-earn (SAYE) schemes. This is a quantitative study in which the data were gathered through a questionnaire. The unit of analysis is the individuals who responded to the survey, and the study is cross-sectional. To analyse the data a variety of statistical techniques, namely frequency, Pearson correlation, partial correlation, t-test, chi-square (X2), reliability, multiple regression, hierarchical regression, and path analyses, were conducted using SPSS. The sample comprised 1,000 employees subdivided into groups of managerial and non-managerial employees, and participants in schemes and non-participants in schemes. The administration of the questionnaire resulted in 450 returns (430 usable), an overall response rate of 45%. This study addresses four main research questions: (1)What are the effects of profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes (financial participation) on the job attitudes of individual employees in a large organization? (2) What are the effects of participation in decision making on employee job attitudes in a large organization? (3) What are the relative effects of financial participation in comparison to the effects of individual participation in decisions? (4) Does the combination of financial participation and participation in decision making produce more favourable effects on employee job attitudes than does participation in decision making on its own? The aim of this study was to construct a more advanced model of profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes by reviewing the theoretical and empirical literature and testing two theoretical frameworks, those developed by Long (1978) and Florkowski (1989). After reviewing the employee participation literature and testing Long's and Florkowski's models, it was found that both financial participation and participation in decision making have separate effects on employee job attitudes and behaviours, even if financial participation has a small (not statistically significant) impact on some attitudes and behaviours. Since financial participation shows a negligible effect on some job attitudes, and participation in decision making has a stronger effect on job attitudes than has financial participation, the new model is constructed on the assumption that both (a) the combination of financial participation and participation in decision making and (b) participation in decision making produce favourable effects on employee job attitudes, such as integration, involvement, commitment, satisfaction, motivation, perceived pay equity, and perceived performance-reward contingencies. The test of the new model shows that both (a) the combination of fmancial participation and participation in decision making and (b) participation in decision making produce favourable effects on employee job attitudes and behaviours, but the combination of financial participation and participation in decision making does not produce more favourable effects on employee job attitudes than does participation in decision making on its own. It should be noted that it is not known in this research whether financial participation changed employees' actual influence in decision making, as the study did not collect any data on this question. Therefore, there is the possibility that if the same study were conducted in organizations with financial participation schemes which increase employees' influence in decision making, the effect of the combination of financial participation and participation in decision making might be found to be stronger than that reported in this dissertation.

Tournament theory shows that a firm may motivate employees by running competitors for rewards either for a group or individualistic schemes. The empirical literature on Tournaments has been grown. However, many studies use no appropriate data. This paper provides the first empirical evidence on three key assumptions in these models using a special case surrounding the incentives for workers in public sector. The dataset contains information from the Coordenacao de Fiscalizacao (i.e., the Inspections Division) of the Secretaria da Receita Federal (SRF) on the bonus program created by the Brazilian government to compensate tax officials for their efforts in collecting taxes and uncovering tax violations. We constructed a larger unbalanced panel data Tax collection containing information upon 110 tax agencies distributed between 10 regions and 45 time period by month, which allowed us to support the predictions raised above. In order to examine the tournaments predictions we emphasize the dynamic of the process taking into account the unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity problems using appropriate GMM techniques. This enable us to pondered the possible inertia for time adjustments within tax agency, possibly in determining strategies to improve the tax agency performance on the sources most valuable for collection, which supports the hypothesis of learning by doing. The results also demonstrated evidence to support the following tournaments hypothesis: (1) prizes motivate agents to exert effort; (2) number of participants increased as the size of the prize increase; (3) differential in wages and bonus directly affect workers incentives.

The aim of the study is to prove that a correlation exist between job satisfaction and the levels of absenteeism, turnover, performance and customer satisfaction. Data were collected using the Job Satisfaction Survey which is a self-administered questionaire to measure job satisfaction of call centre representatives. Additional data were collected using the company's existing measures for measuring absenteeism, turnover, performance and customer satisfaction. The study found a relationship between job satisfaction and performance, between job satisfaction and turnover and between job satisfaction and customer service. However, no relationship was found between job satisfaction and absenteeism, which is consistent with previous studies.

Nowadays, there is a major issue that increasing demand for employees learning and development: technological development. Technological development pushes employees to learn more and companies to offer development programs to their employees. There is always a need for employees to learn new skills, norms and values and develop the personal mastery. Organizations, on the other hand, should empower and encourage employee to develop and to perform a task. The purpose of this study is to identify and investigate the factors, which motivate employees for attending voluntary technical trainings, and to understand to what extent the managers affect employees’ willingness to participate in non-mandatory technical trainings in High-tech MNCs in Sweden. What motivates employees to attend non-mandatory technical development programs and trainings on products in High-tech companies in Sweden? To what extent does manager affect employees’ willingness to attend voluntary technical trainings? A mixed method is used in this research, which is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Seven semi-structured face-to-face Interviews were conducted with both senior managers and employees in studied companies. Survey was conducted online and sent to employees in four high-tech companies in Västmanland, Sweden. Conclusion: There are different motivations for employees to attend voluntary technical trainings in Sweden such as desire to stay updated with the technologies, self-fulfillment and interaction with others. Managers play a more supporting rather than supervisory role in the whole process of employees learning.

Researchers and practitioners have linked the survivability of organization to their ability to manage their knowledge resource. This ability of the organizations depends on providing the technological support for the creation of knowledge, organizational structures (such as the organization reward systems) and the willingness of their employees to share their knowledge. Developments in information and communication technologies have facilitated organizations in developing the infrastructures that are required for the dissemination of knowledge. Organizations are thus left with the challenge of developing organizational structures that will motivate knowledge sharing among its employees. The knowledge sharing problem, which was once seen as an issue of capturing can codifying information, is now seen as a challenge of motivating individuals, the true owner of knowledge, to share their valuable resource. Behavioural scientists have taken interest in knowledge sharing as a form of helping behaviour which is directed at the organizations or member within the organizations. Although organizations have great desire that their managers engage in this behaviour, it is the discretion of their employees whether they want to share or withhold their knowledge. Organizational structural control mechanisms (such as the performance evaluation systems) have limited success in enforcing such behaviour as there are no means of measuring its outputs. Organizations depend on their incentive systems to motivate knowledge sharing. Research into motivation indicates that there is no easy fix to achieve this. Organizations have to balance the use extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, considering the specific motivational requirements of their employees. Motivational interventions, such as the use of incentives, are dependent on the level of trust the employees have in their managers and the organization in whole to deliver on those incentives in a fair and equitable manner. Where trust levels are not sufficient, employees tend to ignore such incentives and tend to further disinvest discretionary efforts. The current study used the psychological contract theory as a frame work for understanding the dynamics of the employee-employer exchange. The central premise of the theory is that employees tend to lose trust in the organization or the agent of the organization, when they perceive that their expectations have not been met. In addition to the lost of trust, psychological contract violation is also negatively associated with desirable organization behaviours and attitudes – such as commitment, in-role and extra-role effort – and is positively associated with undesirable organization behaviours and attitudes such as intention of turnover. The current study used a qualitative research design to investigate how the violation of the psychological contract can add to the ineffectiveness of the organization incentive system to motivate knowledge sharing. Using semistructured interviews the participants were provided with short scenarios (vignettes) which simulated occurrences of psychological contract violation. The participants, acting as informants, responded to question with regards to how the situations depicted in the vignettes would affect the vignette characters’ work behaviours, specifically their desire to share knowledge.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2007--Regensburg.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2001. / Bibliography : leaves 256-283.